RATINGS RAT RACE: 'Don't Trust The B—-' Starts OK On ABC

The last new comedy series of the broadcast season, ABC’s Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23, premiered last night to an OK 2.9/7 in adults 18-49 behind Modern Family (4.1/11), which returned to originals after a three-week hiatus down 9% to a season now. Don’t Trust was slightly higher than the premiere of Happy Endings in the slot last spring (2.7/7 with a 3.8/10 Modern Family lead-in) and lower than the debut of the now-defunct Mr. Sunshine in the time period last February (3.7/10 with a 5.0/13 lead-in from Modern Family). In the 8 PM hour, The Middle (2.1/7) and Suburgatory (2.1/6) were flat with their most recent originals. At 10 PM, a Revenge clip show posted a 1.6/4.

Fox’s American Idol (4.9/14, 16.4 million) was up 4% in the demo from the fast national for the performance show last week (flat with the final) to deliver another nightly win for the network in 18-49 and total viewers. CBS’ Survivor: One World (2.6/8) was down a tenth from last week’s fast national to post the show’s lowest rating ever for a regularly-scheduled original. Criminal Minds (3.0/8) was flat, while CSI (2.3/6) dropped 21% after a 12% jump last week.

There was no Twitter boost for Betty White, who joined the micro-blogging service this week, promoting her NBC show. Betty White’s Off Their Rockers (1.6/5) dipped 11% from the fast national for its official premiere last week. In its second airing, new comedy series Best Friends Forever (0.9/3) took a 25% dive as did Rock Center with Brian Williams (0.6/2) in its fourth scheduling move back to Wednesday 9 PM. Both BFF and Rock Center drew less than 3 million viewers — 2.94 million and 2.75 million, respectively — to rank as the lowest-rated and least-watched programs on the Big 4 networks. (Rock Center once again fell behind Fox News’ O’Reilly Factor). Closing out the night, Law & Order: SVU (1.6/4) was flat with its last two originals. For the night, NBC averaged a 1.1/3 in 18-9, behind Spanish-language Univision (1.4/4).